To see you Smile
by Nyabi
Summary: If he shows happiness, he hides pain. If he shows pain, he hides happiness. And if he grins, he is deceiving you. These are thing Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi were told, but casually cast it away as it was irrelevant...at the time. But when that information becomes relevant, will it be too late?


If he shows happiness, then he hides pain

Those are bits and pieces Sasuke picked up from the street. But meerly cast them aside as street talk.

If he shows pain, he hides happiness

That is something Sakura's father told her. But she was too young to understand at the time so she forgot.

If he grins he is deceiving you

That is something Kakashi was told long ago. He wasn't sure by whom, but he cast that bit of advice aside, for it was never important.

When team 7 formed none of these thoughts were in their heads. Sasuke showed pain, Naruto showed happiness and Sakura always took Sasuke's side because he obviously needed more attention then Naruto. He was sad, she needed to comfort him. And Kakashi paid more attention to Sasuke because well... he needed to know that someone cared.

They forgot all about what they were told. They cast aside that VERY helpful information.

The more Sakura paid attention to Sasuke, the more she pushed away Naruto. The more Kakashi focused on Sasuke, the more he neglected Naruto. And the more Sasuke was paid attention to, the more he forgot about Naruto.

This made Naruto's life hell.

When Sakura pushed him away, he talked a little cheerier. He was silently building his wall between her and his secrets.

When Kakashi neglected him, he would laugh louder. Secretly edging away so he could just be alone and cry.

And when Sasuke forgot about him, Naruto would only smile wider. He would privitly break down inside.

He was covertly screaming, begging and crying for help. But no matter how much he cried in his mind, or when he was alone-isolated- no one would come.

Why?

Because he was a monster. A demon worthy of no one's attention or love. An inhuman thing that was utterly worthless in the eyes of mankind.

None of his teammates had a clue he felt this way, until he showed up for training a month or two after the chunin exam.

It was then that they were reminded of the helpful quotes givin to them.

:3

Naruto was looking in the mirror. His shirt was off and his baby blue eyes looked at a 13 year-old boy littered with scars and bruises. It hurt to move. The villigers had not let up on the beatings last night.

He sighed. He knew the Kyuubi would heal his wounds, but gauging the severity of the damage done to his small malnourished body, that would take a few days.

He sighed again. And looked at the time. 5:57am. He didn't need to meet his team until 7:30. Kakashi would be late, he knew.

Naruto looked at his bloody bruised body. He could hide it with his jacket, it was too big for him anyway. He put on a black shirt. He threw over his jacket, and felt his body ache. His jacket sleeves covered his hand and went a little over, hanging off of his hands, effectivly covering the wounds until he got bandages. But his face had cut and bruises and his eyes had bags. The cuts he wasn't so worried about, they were small- if you counted a deep gash in your right cheek small. He looked in the mirror one last time and flashed a smile. The bags under his eyes from no sleep were mostly hidden, but his smile was too pained. He tried again. Better. Even though it would have some imperfections for his team, he was sure they wouldn't notice. This was when he was most grateful to Sasuke for being a broody emo attention hog. Even though he didn't try.

Naruto was just happy he wasn't gonna be the center of attention today, because that's how everyday went...right?

:3

Sasuke was leaning against the oak tree in a small clearing in the middle of some high grass. Sakura was talking animatly with him. It was 8:54. The 'dobe' was late.

"Yo" Kakashi poofed into existance "Sorry I was-"

"THAT BAKA" Kakashi looked at the cherry blossomed haired girl. Surpirsed not to hear 'liar', but opened his famous book anyway. "Where is he?! He's-"

"HEY" a loud voice of their loud mouthed friend came from the high yellow grass. They couldn't see him but he quickly jumped into the clearing panting and then eventually straightening up and smiling. "Sorry I'm late, I umm got a bit lost in the grass" He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. That was a half lie, Naruto had gotten lost, but that was only due to shortness and his getting lost in thought and self-counciousness.

Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi were just looking at their teammate.

"N-Naruto, what happened to your face?" Sakura asked.

"Oh this?" Naruto's grin widened "Well I just walked into a door, can you believe it?" Naruto lied.

'They wouldn't notice. Their incapable of noticing. Oh kami, please make them NOT notice!' Naruto panicked and reassured himself that his team would NOT noticed. There was a moment of silence until Naruto broke it. He couldn't take it.

"Kakashi sensei what's the mission or are we training?" Naruto asked, secretly hoping for his sensei to say something. His grin widened.

"Teme wanna spar?" Naruto asked a sliver of his hope begging him to say yes. But to no avail. He looked at Sakura. 'why is she just standing there? I just insulted him! Why are they looking at me like that? It's not fear but it's not hatred! What is it!?' Naruto was so mentally confused, but you would be too if you never once saw a look of worry directed toward you in your 13 years of living.

Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi could only stare in bewilderment and worry as the gash on Naruto's cheek began to dribble a bit of blood. The blood went to his cheek and a drop fell to the ground in what seemed like slow motion. They willed the blood not to drop and splash on the ground but it did anyway, and that one drop made the earth shatter.

Kakashi's book dropped.

Sakura was on the verge of crying.

Sasuke's rage flared.

Naruto's grin faltered and he looked at his teammates. Kakashi's shocked expression in his one eye. Sakura's attempts to hold in tears. Sasuke's heat radiating rage. Naruto took a small step back.

"Naruto who the hell cut you" Sasuke demanding seethingly, and it was low.

"I told you teme, the door" Naruto shot back.

"Doors can't cut, Naruto" Sakura said quietly, which only seemed to flare Sasuke up more.

"Who hurt you!" Sasuke said a little louder, stepping closer. Naruto wiped the blood off his face.

"The door is not a who teme, it's a what" That was it, Naruto just got on Sasuke's last nerve. It was one thing to lie about his wound, it was another to lie again. And it just down right pissed him off that he lied again and put a smart a lic answer behind it. Sasuke grabbed Naruto by the shirt and threw him into the tree. Naruto winced at the contact in his back began to burn with pain as some of the larger wounds began to open up. "Ow, what was THAT for!" Naruto said.

"For lying, lying again and then being a dumbass for being a smartass lier!" Sasuke was bounding up to the sitting boy until Kakashi stopped him.

"Now now Sasuke, if Naruto says it was a door, then it was a door" he pressed, and walkedup to Naruto and helped him up but didn't let go of his jacket. "I suppose you got sliced with the door click?" he asked. Naruto hesitantly nodded. "Really?" Kakashi put his hands on the blonde's shoulders. Naruto nodded again. "Because..." Kakashi whipped off Naruto's jacket so fast, Naruto didn't even feel the heavy weight lifted off of him. His arms were exposed, or at least the begaining of his fore arm down. His black oversized T-shirt unraveled to just above his knee and his sleeves were up to his elbows. Naruto looked so...small. But they could see the cuts, burns, and gashes go up his hands and arms. Naruto was frozen and Sasuke and Sakura could only stare. "Just a door" Kakashi said casually looking inside the jacket at the blood that was hiding there.

"OK let's begain training shall we?" Kakashi eye smiled. Naruto sighed with reilef thinking he was in the clear.

"But Sensei-"

"We are going to play a game" Kakashi cut him off and eyed Naruto "An interrogation game" Sasuke smirked evily, Naruto's world shattered and Kakashi was indifferent.

"How do you play"Sasuke asked mockingly.

"Well" Kakashi said innocently and too cheerily "There is going to be a culprit and an interrogator" He looked at Sasuke "Sasuke you are the first interrogator, you have to catch the culprit." Kakashi turned to Naruto "Naruto, you'd better start running because you're the culprit" Naruto didn't need to be asked twice and he bolted off.

"You know you can't out run me dobe" Sasuke smirked to himself dashing off. Kakashi was content and Sakura was relieved, she knew Sasuke would catch Naruto and find out what was wrong with him. She picked up the orange jacket from the ground and held it close.

"Naruto, please be ok"

:3

'Man the dobe is fast, it's been 30 minutes and the only reason he can't hide is because of that massive chakra of his' Sasuke grimaced 'and speaking of which, how can such a small, skinny body have so much chakra anyway?'

'Gotta stop, he's... not ...gonna ...find ...me.' Naruto thought 'I'm ...so ...tired' Naruto sat down in the grass panting heavily. That's when a shadow towered over him, he looked up knowing full well who it was. He looked at the red eyes with 3 comas in them, blazing with anger. He winced and tried to get up only to be tackled and pinned. He managed to stifle a pained scream, Sasuke was sitting on him with his legs on Naruto's cut up and bruised thighs.

Sasuke saw the pain in his comrades sqeezed shut eyes and quickly changed his position to on top of his stomach, big mistake. Naruto screamed in pain, and that would be the first time, but his stomach really hurt. He was stabbed there and then he wasn't feeling to well. He had thrown up last night and his stomach was growling and gurgling to be fed, but grumbling and rumbling in protest when he so much as thought of swallowing the food. So with the added weight of Sasuke was too much for the poor jinchuuriki to hold back a scream.

"N-Naruto" Sasuke jumped off of Naruto, never had he heard him scream in pain like that. He didn't think Naruto could even move anymore, anyway. He knelt near Naruto and pulled up his oversized shirt. He looked at the scars on his chest then the bleeding wound on his stomach, running wasn't such a good idea after all. His stomach was badly injured and Sasuke put a hand over the warm skin. He felt the shaking of his inner organs begging to be fed. Then a black tatoo appeared and Sasuke retracted his hand away. He studied the strange marking. "A...seal?" he whispered but through the agony Naruto heard that and felt Naruto trace the oh so familiar markings. Naruto sat up a bit too fast and his shirt was cascading over the seal, but the sudden headrush and the pain of his wounds let him wince and then let out a small whimper.

"H-hey calm down, dobe. I'll take us back to Kakashi, he'll know what to do." Sasuke said looking at the blanked out, unfocused nod of approval. Naruto was dazed which meant only one thing to Sasuke, Naruto had lost a lot of blood, not good. Sasuke caught the falling Naruto and picked up the small blonde bridal style. Naruto whimpered and leaned into his chest grabbing his shirt. Sasuke paid no mind, for now getting Naruto to Kakashi was the most important thing.

:3

 _If he shows happiness, he is hiding pain_

Sasuke was running through the grass, too focused on his task to feel the grass whipping in his face. But he did notice a small tug, so light that if he wasn't paying attention to this certain person for ANY signs of movement, he would have missed it. Sasuke looked down to see Naruto trying to push away from him. Sasuke stopped and something told him to let go of the blonde, so he set him down and Naruto scrambled to the side and threw up whatever he had in his stomach. Sasuke flared a chakra signal so he'd find Kakashi quicker. He walked up to the coughing blonde and bent down next to him, keeping his eyes off the puke. He took off a wash cloth out of his pocket (don't ask) and wiped off the blood and vomit on Naruto's mouth.

"Feeling better?" He asked nonchalantly, Naruto looked at him and then back to the ground with a small blush.

"I'm fine" he whispered and Sasuke was about to take a double take. Could Naruto be THAT quiet and ...diminutive? Was it even legal?! This sent panic alerts in his mind and Sasuke unconsciously sent out a chakra signal.

"You're NOT!" Sasuke yelled.

Naruto grinned at him. "Teme, you can't decide that" he laughed "stupid and you call ME the idiot. You can't change how someone feels. Even I know that" Sasuke looked at the laughing boy. This laugh was not evil, or insane. But nor was it humorful, although it sounded like he was telling a joke, Sasuke was reading the situation.

Naruto hid his pain with his happiness. And he was fooled into it. And the jinchuuriki wouldn't ask for help, nor would he accept any. So the best Sasuke could do was watch...and be useless.

:3

 _If he shows pain, he is hiding happiness_

Sakura sat under the oak tree, it's been 30 minutes since Sasuke went to find Naruto. And 30 minutes of hard thinking for her. Sakura looked at the jacket that was discarded by her sensei and teammate. It had the scent of blood all over it. The more she looked at it, the more she found dried blood, that had been aging before this day. In fact, this blood was months old. Her eyes threatened to spill tears.

"Stop looking at it, or you'll make yourself cry. Shinobi rule number 25" Kakashi reminded indifferently, turning his page.

"No, sensei. I want to look at it" Sakura said not tearing her eyes off the bright jacket. "The more I look at it, the more I'll know...how much I neglected him" she said the last part quietly, but Kakashi heard and sighed.

"You're not the only one" Kakashi sighed.

"I've always chased after Sasuke, he was always in so much pain. I wanted to make him happier. I didn't even notice Naruto's pain, he-he ...hides it. And I know...deep down inside, Sasuke hides his happiness" Sakura said quietly, rambling to herself.

Then she felt it, Sasuke's chakra signal and then a moment later another one.

"Let's go" Kakashi said and shunshined away, Sakuar ran to the signal.

' _Oh please be ok, Naruto'_

:3

 _If he grins, he's deceiving you_

Kakashi got there just in time to see Sasuke try to help up the blonde one more time. The blonde looks over to Kakashi and grins.

"Hey, sensei. I haven't broken yet, I won't tell you guys anything about that door, so let's play another game" Naruto grinned happily. Like he always does. So innocent. So child-like...It could fool anyone, even an elite jonin such as Kakashi. The kid was good. Good at deceiving. Good at acting. Good at pretending. He was so good he tricked the entire world and not one person knew the boy. Not one person. Naruto might act al open, but seeing him as of now Kakashi knew. Naruto was the most paranoid, secretive, undercover person Kakashi would ever know. His weapon, his wall and his entire outer shell that no one could penetrate was happiness. Fake happiness.

Kakashi could only stare at the barley unconscious boy before him. Breathing heavily and trying to keep up this facade like anyother day.

That's what bothered Kakashi the most. That he tricked him every single day, every single moment, every single second they spent together. It hurt Kakashi to know it was all just an act, a game merely played to hide the bigger picture.

But now that Kakashi thought about it, Naruto's act wasn't perfect. Albeit close, but nothing was perfect. Kakashi should have known, his smiles were a little too big, but close enough to the perfect mask. His laughs were a little too loud, but that went with his character he was assigned right? And no one could be that happy, all the time...not with what HE had inside of him. Not with his burden.

Kakashi then saw it, all these flaws should have been obvious because the more he released these flaws the more defined they got until he finally realized...Naruto was a genius. There was one thing they had to figure out and then piece it together and then they would only know it was an act. It was like a puzzle with missing pieces. The picture Naruto. You had to figure out where the pieces go before you could have the next one. The only trouble is, where to start. The first piece of the puzzle could go anywhere and then that is what you'll need to figure the whole thing out. Trouble was, the first piece was with Naruto. Deep in his mind, hidden away. But it was so obvious yet so feared no one even thought of it for how terrifying it was.

The first piece was the fox. The most obvious, yet completely hidden thing to start with.

"SENSEI!" Kakashi was snapped out of his thoughts by Sakura. He looked at her face of concern.

"What happened Sakura?" he asked trying to not be flustered by what he mentally discovered of his student.

"Naruto passed out and he's bleeding everywhere. If it isn't obvious."Sasuke said trying to stop Naruto's wounds from further opening up. Kakashi looked at the passed out blonde sprawled out in the crimson tainted grass.

"Right I have extra bandages here" Kakashi pulled out the bandages and begun wrapping "These should hold out until we get to Tsunade" he said focusing on his task.

"Sensei" Sasuke asked watching Kakashi wrap Naruto's torso.

"Yes Sasuke" Kakashi asked.

"What's that?" Sasuke pointed to Naruto's stomach which had the seal written on it. Sakura looked at it too and gasped.

"It's a seal..." she said quietly. Kakashi looked at the seal and then quickly covered it with bandages.

"It's nothing, forget you ever saw that" Kakashi said getting back to wrapping. Sasuke eyed him suspiciously and if Kakashi had been paying attention he'd be death glared at, but he wasn't paying attention to the Uchiha and rather the Uzumaki.

"Nothing, huh, cause when I first found it Naruto had a mini panic attack" Sasuke mused and sort of enjoyed his sensei's tension "What is it?" he asked again.

"It's really nothing, he just needs to hold something is all" Kakashi eye smiled.

"Hold what sensei? Why can't a scroll do that?" Sakura asked.

"Oh Sakura, Sasuke, it's really not my place to tell. If Naruto trusts you enough maybe he'll tell" Kakashi said "But I seriously he'll tell us" Kakashi said.

"Why wouldn't he?" Sasuke asked.

"I can't believe you haven't figured it out already Sasuke." Kakashi said slightly disappointed but then again he'd only just figured himself "Naruto, at least the one we know, is an act. He's just a...fake. Lies and deception so we don't know his pain that he suppresses everyday." Sasuke and Sakura's mouths were hung open. "He even fooled me, he's good at what he does isn't he?" Kakashi eye smiled picking up the blonde. Eventually the two genin were pulled out of their shock.

"But...why would he do that" Sakura asked tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"Naruto probably is the most paranoid person I know, now that I think about it. He hides a lot of secrets and pain. He has a pretty weird way of hiding it, but in the end we didn't suspect a thing until now, and how long have we known him" Kakashi asked.

"Naruto...that is actually...smart" Sasuke said in awe "You managed to hide your entire existence from the whole world"

"By making his existence noticeable, man no one would have guessed Naruto to be such a ...genius"Sakura said.

"Aww thanks guys, I was hoping for that but now I'll have to find another way to hide everything." a raspy voice said in Kakashi's arms, they all looked in shock as Naruto laughed a humor filled laugh like he always does, this one was a bit sadder though "And to think, I thought I was doing so good, I should have known not to get so cocky when I thought you wouldn't notice today. Oh well, I was getting a bit tired of that plan anyway, you'd be too after 13 years. Of hate and neglect because a stupid sealing you couldn't control or had any choice in." Naruto looked at his sensei with a sad _smile_ "Actually, I tricked myself too sometimes. I liked to think I was happy, I want to be happy. But that's all in your head so I always thought of the positive, that way I'd be happy. I pushed the pain and sadness away. It was easier, but as the pain built up, it was harder to be happy and I just wanted someone to be there. So in a weird way, this entire situation makes me happy because you finally figured it out. Pretty selfish, huh?" Naruto said quietly. Sasuke, Kakashi and Sakura stopped for a minute and there was silence and Naruto's breathing changed indicating he fell asleep. Sasuke grabbed one of his hands and Sakura grabbed the other.

The sun started to set and all three ninja couldn't stop thinking about Naruto's smile. It seemed so sad but in a weird way it made them all light up. They saw Naruto smile for the first time and they were the first people he smiled to. Not grinned. He wasn't hiding anything. No pain, no happiness. He told them his feelings, his true feelings. They were content with that.


End file.
